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To describe something as “authentic” today is usually thought to give it high praise. But I sometimes question how much of a good authenticity really is.
What makes a thing authentic? Central to authenticity, it seems to me, is the absence of choice. To decide to be authentic is a contradiction.
If people built a house out of stone in 1850 because it was the only material available, we call it an authentic stone house; we do not say this when, of the many materials available to build your house out of today, you choose stone. A Jamaican raised in a Kingston shanty, exposed to reggae all his life, makes authentic reggae himself – in a way that someone who comes in from outside to make reggae music does not. If I were to open an Indian restaurant, people might consider it authentic since I am ethnically part Indian, something I didn’t choose; whereas if I were to open a Thai restaurant, nobody would consider it authentic, even though I can cook much better Thai food than I can Indian.
So why is this something we value? Why do we praise the thing people didn’t choose over the thing they chose? I think it has to do with the inescapable presence of modernity and capitalism, living in the age Marx described so well in the Communist Manifesto, where the “bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honored and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage laborers.” What is chosen can be bought and sold easily. One can certainly buy and sell authenticity; but one cannot create authenticity. In the prosperous modern world, the unchosen is scarce, and that makes it valuable.
Ben said:
I don’t think I have the time to do a rigorous analysis here, but I think your definition of “authentic” misses a major issue. You cite the example of a restaurant being authentic because its owner (the hypothetical you) has the same origin as its food. However, I think people are equally, if not more, likely to wonder whether the *food* is authentic, instead of whether the *restaurant* is authentic. If the stuff that comes out of the kitchen is like what they serve back there in Thailand, that’s a powerful version of authenticity.
Here, authenticity has little to do with choice. Instead, it’s about being true to its source, about not being adjusted (“watered down”) for its audience. Possibly, our society places value on this because of the mass-market focus-group capitalism we get; most things are tweaked to appeal to the widest possible audience, and people who view themselves as “discerning” want to penetrate past that as a think of a priori value.
Amod said:
You’re right that there’s a lot more to the question than what I could get at with the brief post. And I’ll be the first to admit that I’m rather a snob about authenticity myself when it comes to Thai food, and several other cuisines too. On the other hand… one of the things that struck me when I lived in Texas was how much better the Tex-Mex fast food (even at chains like Taco Cabana) was than the fast food served at the taquerias run by and for Mexicans who spoke no English. At the latter, the meat had less flavour, there was no cheese, the salsas were just hot without flavour, and those soft corn tortillas had a gritty texture. Surely more authentic – but not as good. Here, I’d claim the most authentic thing isn’t necessarily the best.
Where am I going with this? Not entirely sure, but – I think there is something about choice that’s at issue even in the case of watering down. People make watered-down Thai food because that’s what their audience chooses to eat, indeed prefers. Here, I suppose, it’s a matter of taking an oppositional posture against society at large – we choose the things the rest of our society doesn’t, and we then make that difference into its own kind of virtue. (I sometimes cringe when I go to Yelp and read reviews of Sichuan places that say the food was too spicy.)
Ryan Overbey said:
Not to lower the level of discourse around here, but any discussion of authenticity should refer to these three essential articles:
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/23/20-being-an-expert-on-your-culture/
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/02/20/71-being-the-only-white-person-around/
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/02/22/73-gentrification/
They cover much of what you are talking about here, but through a very different genre.
Amod said:
I think that might be my brother’s building in the gentrification picture.